'Dan's The Man,' Brags Hometown Hoosier Hamlet Ecstatic Over Pick Of Quayle, Family Man, Good Golfer

August 18, 1988|By Michael Kranish, Boston Globe

HUNTINGTON, IND. — Marjorie Hiner, who runs the local trucking company and, by the way, ran Sen. Dan Quayle's last Senate campaign here, was beside herself. The Bush- Quayle Secret Service advance team blew into town at midnight and began giving orders for the big parade. Hiner's trucking headquarters suddenly became Bush-Quayle central.

By Wednesday morning, Hiner had this quiet, tightly knit railroad and farming community organized with the same precision with which she ran Quayle's campaign.

This town of 17,000, the same population as 75 years ago, and much the same in appearance, is mobilizing, Hoosier proud, for their boy Danny.

''This comes along only once in a lifetime for a community like this,'' said Mike Perkins, editor of the Huntington Herald-Press, who sported a Bush- Quayle button.

Quayle once worked at the paper and today is part owner, but Perkins said the Herald-Press is covering Quayle as if he were just another citizen.

''This is the biggest thing since Huntington was runner-up in the state basketball championship in 1964,'' Perkins said.

Nonetheless, the afternoon paper missed the big story Tuesday, because its deadlines preceded the announcement.

An ''extra,'' or special edition, was impossible because the composing room staff was gone when Bush announced Quayle's selection at 5 p.m. So Quayle's paper had to wait until 3 p.m. Wednesday to publish the Huntington headline of the century: ''DAN'S THE MAN!''

There was no waiting on Victorian-style Jefferson Street, the primary thoroughfare and a sad portrait of a decayed Middle-America downtown. Local businesses posted congratulatory signs; diners at The People's Place patted one another on the back; and everyone praised their sandy-haired prodigy.

Gossip had its place, too. More than a few people expressed astonishment at reports pegging Quayle's worth at $200 million.

Quayle said that the figure is much lower but gave no specifics.

''I didn't know about that until yesterday,'' said Sue Ellet, who babysat for Quayle's children. ''Gee,'' she said jokingly, ''they only paid 50 cents an hour.''

If there was one unanimous opinion about Quayle here, it was that he is one heck of a good golfer -- never hooks the ball, Dick Coyle said.

To be sure, there were the touchy questions that Quayle's friends quickly put down. Thus, on the question of health, Stan ''Doc'' Cope, Quayle's personal physician, said his health was ''excellent.''

''The reason I know that is because he is never sick,'' Cope said.

Skeptics kept a low profile. The Huntington County Democratic Committee, which points out that the town recently elected a Democratic mayor, did not open its headquarters across the street from the Herald-Press.

But the county's Democratic chairman, Hayden Schenk, reached by telephone, predicted that ''Dukakis could win Huntington.''

''Quayle doesn't pay attention to labor,'' he said, noting that Huntington is as blue-collar as it is conservative.

But mostly the scene at the Hiner trucking company said it all. The euphoric Majorie Hiner was on the telephone with the band leader to order 2,000 balloons.